Glendine Greaves, Managing Director of C & G Star Trading Ltd (right) shows Minister Kellman one of the condiments that her company produces.
Unleash creativity!
9/22/2012
By Patricia Thangaraj
Barbados is equipped with well-educated human resources and what we need to do is to utilise our creative skills to develop products and services that would carry this island forward.
This was the message that Denis Kellman, Minister of Industry, Small Business and Rural Development gave at the Launch of Home Expo 2012 at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre (LESC) yesterday.
Kellman said that we cannot just use the excuse that we are only 166 square miles and therefore, this island is too small. According to him, when you look at what can be extracted from the sea, then we have both the land mass and the sea at our disposal. Therefore, we must find ways of utilising both of these resources to the maximum benefits.
He stated that Barbadians must find ways of developing themselves and their country instead of just criticising because when you criticize, you are merely just “laughing at yourself”.
“Unfortunately, we have become too immersed by the negative syndrome that nothing good can come out of Barbados. As a result, we are inclined to undervalue and underestimate the potential and worth of our ideas, our thinking, our expertise, our skills, and should I say, ourselves.
“So consumed are we by that approach, that we are only too ready to accept whatever the world economies produce and place at our disposal. We believe in the notion that what they produce or offer is next to none. It is superior.”
The Minister believes that one of the ways that we can achieve this is through the branding of our industries such as tourism, famous products such as our rum and resources like our mahogany. This would also help Barbados in attaining another of its goals of becoming an entrepreneurial hub by 2020.
Kellman said that our sound educational system has continued to produce bright minds and while this has resulted in many innovative ideas being turned into strong businesses in various industries, more still needs to be done.
“We have been able to develop and produce some bright minds through the corridors of our educational system. The time has therefore come for us not only to embrace and appreciate the technologies and the interventions we have at our disposal, but to see the expansion of our home grown horizons as unbounded. To this end, I see the need for more work to be done in terms of research and development, innovation and the utilization of modern and efficient production methods.
“It would nevertheless be amiss of me not to mention that in recent times, I have seen evidence of strides and efforts being made in this direction by manufactures and small entrepreneurs the sectors which I represent. I however, want to reiterate, that more has to be, and must be done. In this regard, my Government is fully committed to creating the enabling environment for expansion in areas of innovation, investment, entrepreneurship and research and development just to name a few.”
